Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional computer device 1 includes a storage module 11 that stores a basic input/output system (BIOS), a baseboard management controller (BMC) 12, a central processing unit (CPU) 13, and a platform controller hub (PCH) 14 that is electrically connected with the storage module 11, the BMC 12 and the CPU 13. When the computer device 1 is booted up, the CPU 13 loads and executes the BIOS via the PCH 14 so as to initialize each input/output unit for use by a user.
When a new hardware is mounted on the computer device 1, the BIOS may need an update in order to support the new hardware. When an updating process is performed, the BIOS originally stored in the storage module 11 of the computer device 1 (referred to as an original BIOS) is first erased, and a new BIOS is then stored in the storage module 11 of the computer device 1. In other words, data related to the original BIOS, such as original system data which is stored along with the original BIOS in the storage module 11 and which should be retained, are all cleared. Moreover, when the BIOS is revised manually, the original system data may be damaged during the manual revision. For example, when the user intends to revise some information in the BIOS by way of overwriting a part of data corresponding to the information, during the overwriting process, the original system data may be incomplete because a portion of the original system data is accidentally overwritten. Therefore, it is desired to retain the original system data, such as important data related to system management BIOS (SMBIOS) information, in the new BIOS after a BIOS update or revision.
The SMBIOS information contains all kinds of hardware configuration information associated with the computer device 1, including specifications such as version information of the BIOS, name of the manufacturer, product serial number, etc., for facilitating management of the computer device 1.
After the BIOS is updated, the SMBIOS information may be reset, and the user can only manually revise the specifications of the SMBIOS information by using specific tools via the PCH 14, or by remote control over the BMC 12 and the PCH 14. However, it is troublesome for the user to revise the specifications of the SMBIOS information manually each time the BIOS is updated. Moreover, the specifications of the SMBIOS after manual revision may be incomplete and may lead to malfunction of the BIOS. For example, after a server is powered on, an operating system (OS) of the server will not be loaded until a booting process of the BIOS (e.g., the power-on self test, POST, procedure for hardware check and memory configurations) has been completed. Therefore, the malfunction of the BIOS may cause the server to be unable to finish its booting process so the OS will not be executed or the system crashes.